A teen farm worker killed in a Florida bus crash with seven other workers earlier this week after it was sideswiped by a suspected impaired driver was saving up to get married and build a house, his mom said.
Alfredo Tovar Sánchez, 19, traveled from Querétaro, Mexico, to Marion County, Florida on a temporary work visa two weeks before he was killed.
Sánchez planned to harvest melons for two months in order to save enough money for his wedding and build a home for his future bride.
María Sánchez revealed her late son had no idea his 17-year-old fiancée was expecting their first child. She was two months pregnant.
"I feel I can't continue without my son," María said from her home in Mexico, NBC News reported, citing an interview with Telemundo News. "I've been left with so much pain. I don't know that I can live with this pain."
"If they arrest the man who is responsible, then all I ask for is justice," she added.
Bryan Maclean Howard, 41, pleaded not guilty to eight counts of driving under the influence-manslaughter in connection with the deadly crash, according to the Associated Press.
Howard allegedly admitted to investigators he smoked marijuana and took prescription pills before getting behind the wheel of his Ford pickup truck, sideswiping a bus, sending it into a tree and causing it to overturn.
He was denied bond in part due to his criminalistic driving history after the prosecutor alleged Howard had at least five prior incidents involving a vehicle he was operating, CNN reported.
The bus was carrying 53 migrant workers.
Evarado Ventura Hernández, 30; Cristian Salazar Villeda, 24; Isaías Miranda Pascal, 21; José Heriberto Fraga Acosta, 27; Manuel Pérez Ríos, 46; Santiago Benito De Jesus, 24; and Oscar Temoxtle, 31; were also identified as among the deceased.
